Predicting Audio Advertisement Quality

Online audio advertising is a particular form of advertising used abundantly in online music streaming services. In these platforms, which tend to host tens of thousands of unique audio advertisements (ads), providing high quality ads ensures a better user experience and results in longer user engagement. Therefore, the automatic assessment of these ads is an important step toward audio ads ranking and better audio ads creation. In this paper we propose one way to measure the quality of the audio ads using a proxy metric called Long Click Rate (LCR), which is defined by the amount of time a user engages with the follow-up display ad (that is shown while the audio ad is playing) divided by the impressions. We later focus on predicting the audio ad quality using only acoustic features such as harmony, rhythm, and timbre of the audio, extracted from the raw waveform. We discuss how the characteristics of the sound can be connected to concepts such as the clarity of the audio ad message, its trustworthiness, etc. Finally, we propose a new deep learning model for audio ad quality prediction, which outperforms the other discussed models trained on hand-crafted features. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large-scale audio ad quality prediction study.Comment: WSDM '18 Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, 9 page

Methods for assessing the effects of spatial luminance patterns on perceived qualities of concert lighting

This paper presents experimental approaches for evaluating concert lighting from the viewpoints of audience members and performers in Cambridge King's College Chapel. We develop image zoning and abstraction techniques to quantify and interpret photometric data acquired under four different electric lighting conditions. Assessed by 78 participants, these lighting scenarios are compared across six different viewing positions using a set of structured questionnaires. Ordered logistic regression modelling shows that the ratios and functions describing uniformity, brightness and light patterns are common explanatory variables for predicting perceived visual clarity, visual uniformity, brightness and spatial intimacy. Uniformity-related attributes are observed to be among the strongest variables for all these perceived qualities, except for visual clarity, which is better explained by acuity-related measures. These experimental results confirm the applicability of our approaches, highlighting the importance of combining multiple methods and integrating complex architectural situations into the process of understanding luminous appearance. Cambridge Trus

Mismatches between objective parameters and measured perception assessment in room acoustics: a holistic approach

Psychoacoustic research in the field of concert halls has revealed that many aspects concerning listening perception have yet to be totally understood. On the one hand, the objective room acoustics of performance spaces are reflected in parameters, some standardized and some not, but these are related to a limited number of perceptual attributes of human response. In general, these objective parameters cannot accurately describe the acoustic details due to their inherent simplification. Under these premises, impulse responses (576 receivers) are measured in 16 concert halls, according to standard procedures, and the perception and satisfaction of the occupants of the rooms are evaluated by completing a questionnaire during live concerts. Correlation analyses and multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques have been applied to spatial and multi-band averaged values of the acoustic parameters studied (18), and the average values of users responses (1284) to the questionnaire items (26). As a first result, correlations between objective parameters and users responses show that transversality exists between them. Secondly, hierarchical clustering produces the classification of survey questions in 7 hierarchical classes. On the other hand, a lack of tuning between objective parameters and perceptual responses is observed on applying MDS analysis to the ordination of the venues from a subjective assessment and a subjectiveobjective assessment. Finally, although the results show the mismatch between objective parameters and subjective responses, a model of subjective global evaluation of the acoustics of the room from data of three orthogonal acoustic parameters is implemented, revealing a reasonably good fit.The authors wish to express their gratitude to P. Bustamante for his help, to all those who participated as listeners in this study, and to management and staff of each hall for facilitating acoustic measurements and allowing distribution of the questionnaires in their theatres. This work has been financially supported by FEDER funds and by the Ministry of Science and Technology with references Nos. BIA2003-09306, BIA2008-05485, BIA 2010-20523, and BIA 2012-36896.Giménez Pérez, A.; Cibrián Ortíz De Anda, R.; Cerdá Jordá, S.; Girón, S.; Zamarreño García, T. (2014). Mismatches between objective parameters and measured perception assessment in room acoustics: a holistic approach. Building and Environment. 74:119-131. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.12.022S1191317